TV Pilot: Sleepy Hollow Reviewed...

It is 1781 and Ichabod Crane is undertaking a special mission for General George Washington. Given only some basic information, Washington tells him that it is important to the future of humanity that a ‘pale rider’ makes no more progress in the war. Facing down the helmeted warrior on the battlefield, Crane manages to sever the rider’s head but not without suffering fatal woundsof his own. As he lays dying he remembers seeing both a priest and his wife telling him to hold on and then... he wakes up in an unfamiliar underground chamber. Crawling out to the surface he finds a strange new world. It is no longer 1781 but 2013 and the town of Sleepy Hollow appears to have a major homicide problem developing... the culprit: an apparently headless horseman...

Taken in for questioning, a bemused and presumed-crazy Crane is the police’s immediate and obvious subject, but  young Detective Abbie Mills thinks that Crane at least BELIEVES his own story. As she begins to glimpse more and more fantastical events – some of which tie up to long-buried memories of her own – she decides to trust this strange newcomer to help her, but the deaths are going to continue and it soon becomes apparent that she and Crane may have an even stranger destiny than either could have believed...

Even if people have never read Washington Irving’s classic story  they will be familiar with the basic elements of the tale, especially of the headless horseman, of schoolmaster Ichabod Crane and his thwarted love for Katrina the only daughter of a wealthy farmer.  It’s a spooky tale that resonates with those who like traditional ghost stories and holds a special place in the heart of many Americans. More recently Tim Burton and Johnny Depp (well, who else?) recreated the myth with the usual slant towards the gothic and skewed visuals, but  otherwise, the story has been missing from the screen for a while, best told from dusty tomes with creaking spines and lightly turned yellowing pages.

So when FOX announced that they were to make a full series around the concept and, what’s more, make it a largely contemporary take on the legend, there were probably a few raised eyebrows and concerns that it would take the mere skeleton of the story and discard not just the head but any of the meat left on those bones.

Certainly there’s a formula to the Sleepy Hollow show that the tale has been made to fill out - the more brittle, interesting edges having been smoothed down in favour of fitting into a modern family primetime template that tales few risks and seeks the maximum demographic. Now Ichabod Crane, far from being the somewhat cantankerous, spindly victim who largely get what he deserves in the book, is placed front and centre as a tragic, noble stubbly-chinned hero... even moreso than Depp in the big-screen version. Relative newcomer British actor Tom Mison takes on the central role and gives us the kind of leading man that combines dry sarcasm, a bemused look of confusion and the kind of physique, face and weary smile that will give him long  lines of adoring fans at conventions. Nicole Beharie (previously seen in Shame) is perfectly good as Abbie Mills, the cop who was about to leave the town of Sleepy Hollow and the first person to acknowledge that if Crane isn’t the killer they’re searching for, then – crazy or not – he’s their best lead to find out who is to blame.  Of course, no sword-wielding concept  with decapitations and time-displacement would be fit to be viewed without the participation of Clancy Brown (Highlander), though his role is somewhat  limited after the first act. 

When all is said and done, it’s all remarkably silly - look remotely closely and it can feel as if stitched together by executives who through darts at a board to combine random elements into one package. Some elements of period drama (Check).  Magical spells (check). Mismatched investigators (double check), fancy costumes (coat check). Prophecy of the end of days ( check that out).  Indeed, there’s even a line in the pilot where Ichabod notes that there’s a line in a prophecy about  he and Abbie having to work together for seven years to keep the Apocalypse at bay. (That’s one hopeful FOX executive  not spooked from laying out his optimism). 

However it’s also all told at such a rollicking pace and with a degree of panache and style, that the result is one of those shows that - if you can wilfully suspend disbelief for forty-four fantastical minutes - provides a fun ride full of decent special-effects,  some action sequences, a few zingy one-liners and just enough of an internal and existing mythology to keep viewers returning out of habit each week.  How far and long one can run the story about a cranium-challenged  blade-weilding equestrian who can only venture out at night  and the wacky mix-ups of a time-displaced hero coming to terms with cell-phones and Starbucks, time will tell. All in all, it’s good fun, much better  than one might expect. It debuted to very impressive ratings Stateside, but one may  be tempted think it is more likely to settle into a moderate, well-publicised cult guilty-pleasure rather than a top-rated season-long juggernaut.

Sleepy Hollow debuted on the FOX network in the US on September 16th. It will be broadcast by Universal Channel in the UK soon.